Premiere: London’s Oscar King Debuts with Striking and Spooky Bring It All Back

With his identity still somewhat under-wraps, Oscar King’s debut track stands out as a highlight amid the dark electro-pop landscape.

Debut tracks are always a bit of a tricky one to suss, given the process of finding a sound and aesthetic can be the set-up for making it or breaking it for any artist. Anyone struggling with this should take some advice from Oscar King, whose first release Bring It All Back is as spot-on for a debut as we think we’ll ever see.

Hailing from London, the 22 year old multi-instrumentalist conjures up haunting soundscapes across three minutes of spooky electro, reminiscent of both Banks and James Blake. An epic slow-jam that we just can’t get enough and are happily premiering ahead of its official release tomorrow (7/4/17).

The track comes courtesy of Genre Confused, the London based record label and blog refraining from being bound by a certain genre or style but instead “finding and releasing eclectic music that they love and hope others will as well.” Bring It All Back marks their second release as a label.

To tie in with the release of the track, Oscar debriefs us on his latest effort and what to expect from the newcomer in the near future:

HISKIND: How did Bring It All Back come about ?

Oscar: Luke Murphy, the producer, got in contact with me via Soundcloud, and we decided to see what would happen if I wrote a song over one of his beats. After some solid work together, we created Bring It All Back!

How easy has it been harnessing a sound that suits you as a new artist?

It’s certainly a collaborative effort between me and the producer. I always have an exact idea of what I want the sound to be in my head, but this is sometimes hard to translate into actual sound! I like to create expansive soundscapes with synths and added percussive beats, and then mix with the vocals so that they complement each other.

How do you go about writing the song?

I do this quite weird thing that I call stream of consciousness singing – so I just sing whatever comes to mind over the beat, and that creates the basis for the song. Then I mould these ideas into a song structure; but overall it’s a very organic process.

What’s been the biggest source of inspiration that has fed into your work?

I really admire Banks, FKA Twigs, James Blake and Amy Winehouse to name a few. I must admit if a sound is too poppy I usually can’t tolerate it! There’s also an experimental element that I would like to explore further, but we will have to see where that goes.

Your CV includes voguing, drag, music – are there any other creative areas that you haven’t yet explored that you’d like to in the future?

I guess a natural collaboration of dance and music would be to put them in film. For me aesthetic is important. I’m still a baby voguer really so I’ve still got a way to go before I can do anything impressive! On the other hand, I’ve been doing music my whole life so look forward to seeing where this project will take me.

Three reasons why everyone and anyone should keep an eye out for you in the future…